Swedish ISP Bredbandsbolaget has begun blocking The Pirate Bay but it will not give up the fight. The provider says that in order to ensure that private players "do not have the last word regarding content that should be accessible on the Internet," it will be forced to fight any new blocking demands. Meanwhile, several of the blocked domains appear to be linking to legal sites.

Two weeks go after almost three years of legal battles, Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry finally achieved their dream of blocking a ‘pirate’ site.

The Patent and Market Court ordered Bredbandsbolaget, the ISP at the center of the action, to block The Pirate Bay and another defunct site, Swefilmer. A few hours ago the provider barred its subscribers from accessing them, just ahead of the Court deadline.

This pioneering legal action will almost certainly open the floodgates to similar demands in the future, but if content providers think that Bredbandsbolaget will roll over and give up, they have another thing coming.

In a statement announcing that it had complied with the orders of the court, the ISP said that despite having good reasons to appeal, it had been not allowed to do so. The provider adds that it finds it unreasonable that any provider should have to block content following pressure from private interests, so will fight all future requests.

“We are now forced to contest any future blocking demands. It is the only way for us and other Internet operators to ensure that private players should not have the last word regarding the content that should be accessible on the Internet,” Bredbandsbolaget said.

Noting that the chances of contesting a precedent-setting ruling are “small or non-existent”, the ISP added that not all providers will have the resources to fight, if they are targeted next. Fighting should be the aim though, since there are problems with the existing court order.

According to Bredbandsbolaget, the order requires it to block 100 domain names. However, the ISP says that during the trial it was not determined whether they all lead to illegal sites. In fact, it appears that some of the domains actual point to sites that are either fully legal or non-operational.

For example, in tests conducted by TF this morning the domain bay.malk.rocks led to a Minecraft forum, fattorrents.ws and magnetsearch.net/org were dead, piratewiki.info had expired, torrentdr.com was parked and ViceTorrent.com returned error 404. Also, Swefilmer.com returned a placeholder and SweHD.com was parked and for sale.

“What domains should be blocked or not blocked is therefore reliant on rightsholders’ sincerity, infallibility and the ability to make proportionate assessments,” Bredbandsbolaget warns.

“It is still unclear which body receives questions and complaints if an operator is required to mistakenly block a domain.”

In the wake of the blocking ruling two weeks ago, two other major ISPs in Sweden indicated that they too would put up a fight against blocking demands.

Bahnhof slammed the decision to block The Pirate Bay, describing the effort as signaling the “death throes” of the copyright industry.

Telia was more moderate but said it has no intention of blocking The Pirate Bay, unless it is forced to do so by law.

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The full list of domains that were blocked this morning are as follows: